"Erph!"

In the silence, his exhale reverberates. A sound akin to cracking a watermelon follows, as the first foe’s cranium blew up.

"What the..!?"

"Who is!?"

There are six intruders, all robbers without much of an armour. They are professional assassins who feel no remorse in murder. The client, Soraya had told them that there might be guards but they do not expect anyone to be this strong.

The shop is empty. While they had looked around for some valuables, they had covered up their tracks, and are waiting for the shop’s owner to return. Once he is taken care of, they are going to take what they want before setting the shop ablaze and disappearing. It is supposed to be a simple job. Simple enough that, six skilled robbers with experience in assassinations are supposed to be overkill. Even if the shop owner has hired guards, a six skillful men ambush has no chance of failure.

Only the final intruder had enough time to scream before his death.

"All clear, Sylvia. As far as I can tell, there’s no one else here." 

The former Arkland knight, Irijina speaks.

"Thank you, Irijina… Who were they, anyway?"

Sylvia, after emerging from the waterway, rummages the now silent corpses for any form of identification.

"Someone’s hired blade, no doubt. They even prepped the shop with oil. They were ready to kill Hiro and set the shop on fire."

Irijina adds under her breath:

"This place will smell like oil for a while, unless you scrub it down real good."

They weren’t mere robbers. Then, their client is most likely…

"Someone from House of Lambert… I’m sure. I’m just glad no one else was here." Sylvia deducts.

"I acknowledge our fortune that no innocent blood was spilt, but I have no idea who is behind this. We did what we came here for. Let’s hurry back."

After saying so, matter-of-factly, Irijina begins carrying the bodies out to the waterway. Sylvia, in contemplation, digs out what she had come here for from Selene’s drawer in the corner of the workshop. Another reason they come here is to ensure that no more valuable items left here.

"Are you ready? There are villains, as expected. Let me help to put the corpses outside the town." Mirai suddenly appears. She is sent here to check on both girls.

Sylvia stops herself in her tracks to think. What does their situation signify? What will this outcome lead to? How will House of Lambert act, if they are truly behind this attack?

"Irijina. Please pick out the body with the closest body-shape to Hiro’s, and leave it in here. We will strip it, and cloth it with Hiro’s spare clothes from the closet in the second floor… After that, we’ll set the shop on fire."

Irijina and Mirai turn around, confused.

"Why?"

"We have to think several steps ahead, like Hiro does… If they were sent by House of Lambert, they would discover their failure soon if the robbers never return to report on it. That will make them more careful than ever."

Her eyes down, she talks to herself in order to keep her thoughts moving. Just like Hiro would.

"Think. Think… What would Hiro do? He would say that we can at least buy time. It would be easy to explain that they hid out somewhere else after the deed. We have a problem when another group of assassins come to check on the shop… So if we can make it look like Hiro had been murdered… Even just a little…"

"Sylvia-san. You have the same look that Hiro-sama has." Mirai tells her.

With astonishment and amazement, Irijina observes.

"I didn’t think you were as bad as him."

Sylvia’s tension eases a little, hearing that. She realizes that Irijina, in her own way, is trying to relax her.

"…Yes, I’m a villain’s lover. You know…"

Before she could say more, a knock is heard at the front door. 

If whoever outside enters, they would see corpses.

Sylvia heads to the door. It cracks open. Several men stand in front of it.

"Hiro company, right?"

***

(A rented room in Abram City)

There are only Brita, Hanabi, Selene and me in here. Hanabi is here for communication while Selene is using her magic tools for observation.

Brita is the bodyguard.

"So we won’t have the house anymore!?"

That is Brita’s primary concern. Come to think of it, she was in love with the soft bed there.

"I think we can salvage the second floor if we clear off the ashes, but… They’re going to burn all of the shop down. They said they’d be careful not to spread the fire to the neighbors." I elucidates. 

We are communicating our conversation with other girls via Hanabi's telepathy.

"That girl’s starting to act a lot like you, too. She’s getting more daring by the day."

Sekrit who is wandering in the street giggles with amusement. I know she is exhausted too, but the single word had the effect I had expected… More than that, actually.

"Right. Sylvia is soaking up my methods and my thought process. You can count on her much more than you can on me. And… Like I’ve already said, we know where Soraya will hit, for sure."

"It is her loss for underestimating us. Now, we already know her power." Ivanna adds with noisy crowd as her background. She is among the crowd.

"Still, Soraya's mind conditioning is a lot more powerful than my temporary body possession." Hanabi praises her foe.

Another voice chimed in to my sea of thought.

"Hiro-sama! No one is on the roofs of churches. And there’s smoke coming from our house, but that’s okay, right?"

Kurotsuchi, who has been watching from above. She is walking and jumping from building to wall to building.

"Thank you Kuro-chan. That’s not a problem… I have to cut my losses."

"Hmm! So, it sounds pretty complicated… What are you talking about?"

"Soraya Zoen and Lubreo are both our enemies… Right? Then why does it matter who’s more powerful than who? We have to take care of both of them."

…Kurotsuchi's answer makes me quite dumbfounded. She is right. What I need now isn’t the details of their operations, but how to handle what is coming ahead.

"…That’s right. Thank you, Kuro-chan."

"Hee hee… I’m smart, aren’t I? …Oh, it’s almost at the place you mentioned."